Wikipedia

World Usability Day

World Usability Day (WUD) or Make Things Easier Day,[1] Established in 2005 by the Usability Professionals Association (now the User Experience Professionals Association), occurs annually to promote the values of usability, usability engineering, user-centered design, universal usability, and every user's responsibility to ask for things that work better. The day adopts a different theme each year.

World Usability Day
World Usability Day presentation at La Salle University, Columbia
Also calledMake Things Easier Day
DateSecond Thursday in November
2023 dateNovember 9  (2023-11-09)
2024 dateNovember 14  (2024-11-14)
2025 dateNovember 13  (2025-11-13)
2026 dateNovember 12  (2026-11-12)
Frequencyannual

World Usability Day started as an idea springing from a discussion in the fall of 2004 between two UPA board member, Elizabeth Rosenzweig and Nigel Bevan. They worked together with the UPA board to start World Usability Day and over the years, Elizabeth Rosenzweig kept it running.[2]

"World Usability Day was established to focus people on the problems and subsequent solutions related to usability. We want to raise people’s awareness of how much these problems impact all of us. If we can get thousands of people on the planet to focus on one thing for one day, we can accomplish something big. It only takes one day to change someone’s point of view, or to light a fire that can burn for years." - Elizabeth Rosenzweig[3]

Across more than 140 countries, WUD has engaged over 250,000 individuals and had an impact on their local communities. WUD has opened up the field of UX and usability in places where it did not exist before the event, such as Eastern Europe (including Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey).[4]

World Usability Day is currently run by the World Usability Initiative[5]. The WUD organizers have collaborated with renowned professional associations like SIGCHI, HCII, PLAIN, and IFIP. Together, they established the World Usability Initiative (WUI), a focused global organization. Operating as a singular, dedicated entity, WUI works closely with the United Nations, particularly concerning the human factors integral to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.[4]

Each year, World Usability Day is built around a theme relevant to the state of design and technology.[6] Previous themes include:

  • 2024: Designing for a Better World
  • 2023: Collaboration and Cooperation
  • 2022: Our Health[7][8]
  • 2021: Design of Our Online World
  • 2020: Human Centered AI
  • 2019: Design for the Future We Want
  • 2018: Design for Good or Evil
  • 2017: Inclusion
  • 2016: Sustainable/Green UX
  • 2015: Innovation
  • 2014: Engagement
  • 2013: Healthcare: Collaborating for Better Systems
  • 2012: Finance
  • 2011: Education: Designing for Social Change
  • 2010: Communication
  • 2009: Sustainability
  • 2008: Transportation
  • 2007: Healthcare
  • 2006: Making Life Easy
  • 2005: First Year

World Usability Day has support from notable technology leaders including:


World Usability Day events have been run in over 140 countries, including:


World Usability Day events have been sponsored by numerous corporations and organizations, including:

References

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  1. ^ Tim Bedore (2006-11-14). "How about Make Things Easier Day?". American Public Media's Marketplace (radio program). Retrieved 2006-12-27. Today is World Usability Day, a day to promote intuitive engineering and user-friendly design. Commentator and humorist Tim Bedore is all for it, if only we could come up with a better name . . .
  2. ^ "World Usability Day". World Celebration Days. 2021-11-10. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  3. ^ "World Usability Day: A Challenge for Everyone - JUX". JUX - The Journal of User Experience. 2006-08-07. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  4. ^ a b "Usability: The essential ingredient for sustainable world development | ACM Interactions". interactions.acm.org. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  5. ^ Rosenzweig, Elizabeth; Lazem, Shaima; Dray, Susan (2023-08-16). "The World Usability Initiative: Toward Inclusive and Usable Computing Technologies Worldwide". Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies. COMPASS '23. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 142–144. doi:10.1145/3588001.3609377. ISBN 979-8-4007-0149-8.
  6. ^ "Themes – World Usability Day". Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  7. ^ "World Usability Day 2022: What is Usability and Why Does it Matter? Theme, History and Significance". News18. 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  8. ^ "World Usability Day 2022: History, theme, significance and all you need to know". News9live. 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  9. ^ Bill Gates at World Usability Day 2007. Retrieved 2024-05-08 – via www.youtube.com.
  10. ^ "UX Roundup: IDEO Cut in Half | Dall-E Characters | AI New UI Paradigm World Usability Day | OpenAI Keynote". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  11. ^ World Usability Day with John Hockenberry. Retrieved 2024-05-08 – via www.youtube.com.
  12. ^ "Home". World Usability Day. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  13. ^ "Events – World Usability Day". Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  14. ^ "Celebrate World Usability Day by Embracing Accessibility". The American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  15. ^ "Human Centered Design & Engineering". Human Centered Design & Engineering. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  16. ^ BBVA (2019-11-14). "World Usability Day: how design enhances our lives | BBVA". NEWS BBVA. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  17. ^ "World Usability Day 2018: Design for Good or Evil | Bentley University". www.bentley.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  18. ^ optimalworkshopadmin (2018-11-08). "World Usability Day 2018: 6 examples of bad design and how to improve them". Optimal Workshop. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  19. ^ Team, Understood. "World Usability Day". www.understood.org. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  20. ^ "World Usability Day: Designing for the Future We Want". generalassemb.ly. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  21. ^ "Human Factors International". HFI. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  22. ^ Roberts, Chris (2023-11-09). "What is World Usability Day and Why Does it Matter?". Priority Pixels. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  23. ^ Swan, Cheryl (2023-11-08). "Why World Usability Day Matters". HeX Productions. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  24. ^ Woodbury, Leah (2023-11-09). "Happy World Usability Day! | Procare". Procare Solutions. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  25. ^ Cullen, Riley (2023-11-09). "Celebrating Usability Day at WP Engine". WP Engine. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  26. ^ "World Usability Day: What is Usability and Why Does it Matter?". GlobalLogic. 2023-01-25. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  27. ^ "Demystifying AI Usability on World Usability Day". www.fabricgroup.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  28. ^ Interactive, Key Lime. "User-Centered Design: Celebrating World Usability Day 2022". info.keylimeinteractive.com. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  29. ^ TPGi (2020-11-10). "Celebrating World Usability Day". TPGi. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
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